Committee Passes Debit Card Bill

The Assembly Insurance Committee unanimously passed a bill that would permanently allow employers and carriers to use prepaid debit cards to provide workers' compensation benefits. The committee on Wednesday voted 17-0 to pass AB 1683, which would eliminate the Jan. 1, 2027, sunset date for the pilot program lawmakers in 2018 modeled after the program the Employment Development Department uses to pay unemployment and state disability insurance benefits. The pilot was originally scheduled to sunset at the start of 2023, but lawmakers extended it several times to provide more time for the ...